Road Hockey Tournament to Benefit Special Needs Youngsters

ESPN’s Dan Shulman, Coach Mike Keenan, helping to promote “GAME ON!”

The above is a refrain common to Canadian youngsters who grew up playing road hockey after school and on weekends, with only darkness acting as the final buzzer.

But, today, the phrase “Game On” is even more meaningful, with special needs youngsters the ultimate beneficiaries.

On Sunday, June 17th, the first GAME ON charitable Road Hockey Tournament comes to Sherman Campus (on Bathurst, just north of Sheppard Avenue). Proceeds raised by the variety of slap shots, writs shots and the occasional backhands, will go to special needs camps and sports programs, through JCC Chai Sports and Camp Aim.

With both Youth and Adult divisions, more than 20 teams are expected to participate.

Organizers of the event have already raised $25,000 in sponsorship, with the goal of raising another $50,000 from participants.

An impressive promotional video featuring ESPN’s Dan Shulman, former NHL coaching great Mike Keenan, Cabbie from TSN, Minister Peter Kent and others can be seen at www.gameonrh.com.

“I have a daughter, Paige, who is mildly afflicted with Cerebral Palsy,” says GAME ON chair, Michelle Zaldin, explaining how the event came to fruition. “Last year she attended Camp Aim for the first time and had a wonderful experience. It is an awesome day camp for special needs children. Unfortunately, Camp Aim could only run for the month of July as they did not have funding to be able to run in August too. This presented a challenge for me in trying to find the appropriate camp for Paige for August. It was at that time that I decided something had to be done as I could not let Camp Aim only run for one month this summer. I was speaking to Alex Voihanski, the managing Director of JCC Chai Sports about my dilemma and he too wanted to raise funds for JCC Chai Sports so we decided to team up and thus, Game On was born. Our goal is to make this an annual event getting bigger and better every year.”

And, of all the “goals” that are going to be scored on June 17th at Sherman Campus, that’s the most important one of all.

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